Staffers at the state Public Disclosure Commission are recommending dismissal of a campaign finance complaint brought against Republican Rob McKenna’s gubernatorial campaign by his Democratic rival, Jay Inslee.  The full report, which did find errors by the McKenna campaign, is here.

The PDC staff’s recommendation to drop the case is the same conclusion it reached last week about a complaint McKenna’s team filed against Inslee’s campaign.

The commission on Monday then rejected the McKenna complaints against Inslee. The recommendation on the complaint against McKenna now goes to the five-member citizen commission on Thursday, Oct. 25.

At issue …

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A campaign finance report filed today with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission indicates The Seattle Times Co. intends to run 21 straight days of political ads to benefit Republican candidate for governor Rob McKenna.

The pro-McKenna ads — valued by the newspaper at $75,750 — will run through Elelction Day on Nov. 6,  the Times’ campaign finance report shows. The ads range in value from $2,000 to $6,500 over their planned three weeks of publication.

Officials for the newspaper, which previously had endorsed McKenna in an editorial, also announced today the Times will run ads valued at a similar amount supporting …

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Tacoma trial lawyer Jack Connelly has now poured $988,383 into his campaign for the 27th Legislative District senate seat against state Rep. Jeannie Darneille, the latest campaign finance records show.

In all, the Connelly campaign’s total contributions — when including about $67,000 in other donations  – have surpassed the $1 million mark.  He has raised $1,065,719 to date — tops among legislative candidates statewide, records show.

Connelly’s camp has also spent almost three-quarters of that money — partly to fund a barrage of TV spots, mailers and other political advertisements in recent weeks that largely attack Darneille’s 12-year record …

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The Republican Governors Association has now put $11.4 million into Washington’s gubernatorial race, including $4 million reported Monday and today alone.

Those are the totals from a state political committee’s latest reports to the Public Disclosure Commission, and although details on today’s money aren’t yet on file with the PDC, the RGA confirmed it added the additional amount. The money is being used in ads against Democratic former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee.

The Democratic counterpart formed to attack Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna, funded by unions and the Democratic Governors Association, reported $7.9 million through Monday. The total could be updated in …

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This letter went out over the weekend, taking advantage of the viral video of Rob McKenna and his wife Marilyn joining some Korean-American girls dancing at a recent festival.

Hey,

If you saw my parents on YouTube dancing “Gangnam Style,” you probably agree that I am going to be hearing about it from other kids for a long time.

Oh boy, that’s not something I am looking forward to. So, I told Mom I would give them $10 to never do that again, but she still hasn’t promised.

Will you match my $10 – so maybe mom and dad will

…

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The wealthy Weyerhaeuser scion has loaned his campaign another $500,000, his campaign confirmed.

Republican Driscoll first told the Aberdeen Daily World he had doubled his personal contribution to his campaign.

Driscoll originally said the rest of his campaign after $500,000 in personal seed money would be funded by individual donations. But his campaign consultant, Alex Hays, said today the loan was essential to keep up with rival and Democrat Derek Kilmer and ensure the national Republican Party and political committees take the campaign seriously.

Driscoll raised more than $1.5 million through September, Hays said. Around two-thirds is his …

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A new ad produced for the Washington State Republican Party alleges that five of the Democrats running for statewide elected office are unethical and “Unfit for Office.”

The four are secretary of state candidate Kathleen Drew, auditor candidate Troy Kelley, attorney general candidate Bob Ferguson, governor candidate Jay Inslee and Lt. Gov. Brad Owen.

In each case, the ad cites articles written about allegations and some findings against the five. The ad seems to equate some pretty serious charges with some minor disclosure violations and even includes one that was made not against the candidate but the candidate’s husband. It …

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Whatever other conclusions one draws from the court documents that became public this month involving state Rep. Troy Kelley, they’re a window into the state auditor candidate’s complicated web of businesses and clients.

Putting aside all the alleged wrongdoing that Kelley denies, his document-tracking business clearly involved a head-spinning array of companies he owned making multimillion-dollar transfers of money to each other using multiple bank accounts in different states. He also had access to an account in Belize, a country known as a tax haven, that he said was set up for estate planning purposes and then closed.

State Republicans now argue …

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